Buffalo Chicken Pasta

Ya'll - you need to put this one on your menu plan for next week!  I took this recipe from how sweet it is, found it more healthy here, and used the mac and cheese recipe from here...basically awesome.

Buffalo Chicken Pasta
5 cups (12 oz) whole wheat pasta
6 cups whole milk
1.5 ish cups of grated cheese (we used cheddar)
2 chicken breasts (boneless/skinless), cooked and cut into chunks
1/3 cup buffalo wing sauce
1/3 cup bread crumbs (i.e. toast put into the food processor or clean coffee grinder)
Garnish: fresh cilantro (quite a bit), 4 oz. Gorgonzola cheese, and some extra buffalo wing sauce (we just used regular bbq sauce)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350F/175C (the original said 375F/190C).

Mix pasta, milk and salt in a large sauce pan.  Cook over medium-high heat STIRRING ALMOST CONSTANTLY until the pasta is tender (10-15 minutes).  Remove from heat.  Add cheese and stir until melted. (this is how we make mac and cheese from the heavenly homemaker mac and cheese recipe).  At this time, I also stirred in the chunks of chicken and buffalo wing sauce.

Pour it all into a greased 9 x 13 pan.  Top with bread crumbs and a little bit of cheese.

Bake for 20-25 minutes.  After you take the pan out of the oven, top with cilantro and the gorgonzola cheese.

A really long post on my menu planning ephipanies

I have been working on my menu planning system the last few months.  I think I finally have it figured out.  I, personally, do not like the "weekly meal plan".  It worked okay for us in Korea, but I sometimes find a new recipe that I want to make next week, or I want to reschedule a yummy meal we just ate.  This is going to shatter the earth, ya'll.  I print a calendar (really, it is 5week x 7 days graph that looks like a calendar) off each month.

So mind-blowing, I took a picture of March's Menu

It hangs on the side of the fridge - it rocks my world.  Once a week, I take it down and menu plan on it.  Then I hang it back up.  The main thing that I love about this system is that at the end of 2013, I will have 12 blessed sheets of paper that list ALL the meals we have eaten.  12, not 52.  Praise the Lord!

Anywho, I have now been doing this for 3 months or so.  I collected the good meals we have eaten in the last 3 months and categorized them on a piece of paper.  I have listed the "special ingredients" that I need to make each dish (things you would not find in my cupboards on a regular basis).

I like this piece of paper for several reasons.

1. If I want to make Egg, Cheese, and Sausage Bake, then I know I need parsley.  I also see that I use parsley in Shrimp Salad - perfect!  Let's eat those within a week of each other and not let the fresh parsley go bad in the back of the fridge.
2. If I need to pull together a meal quickly, I can survey my fridge and cupboards, see what I have, and refer to the piece of paper to see what I can make with ingredients on hand.
3. It includes pretty colors.  I like pretty colors.
4. When I am trying to menu plan for a week, and my brain is stuck, I can whip out this piece of paper and see what looks good, or what meal make sense to make for this week (see #1)
5. While menu planning, I can check the store ads online and try to make frugal meals with what is on sale...I have not tried this yet, but it seems like a good idea in my brain. 

My plan is to update this every 3-6 months with new recipes we have tried and liked.  My goal is to have chicken (or beef, or eggs etc) take up an entire page or half a page someday.  Then I will be menu planning queen!  And I would like the day of entire page of chicken be in the next 5 years (that is before we have kiddos and our life gets crazy.  Having kids = craziness.  I do learn things whilst nannying ya'll...sometimes craziness = fun and sometimes craziness = not having time to search the internet and cookbooks for lots of fun new recipes because Someone wants a sippy cup full of milk and Someone Else wants to know how cereal is made, Someone else is practicing the piano with much gusto, and the phone is ringing).

I think the best thing about this is that I know it works for me.  I have read a lot of blog posts about how meal planning works for other people.  But I have never read a blog post that clicked for me, "Like that would totally work for me!".  This (so far) has worked.  Hallelujah!

I am working on getting this into a google doc so ya'll can access it.  It is slow going because google docs does not like me.  I will link it when I have it.

New Recipes Tried in February

I like to talk about food.  Here are some new recipes that I tried in February and what we thought of them.


Enchilada Chicken Pasta - Yum-o!  Ian thinks that this recipe could be spicier (and I agree).
 
Broccoli Chicken Supreme - I got this recipe from a friend.  It was good.  If you make it, follow the recipe...improvising may have it turn out not so good (not that I would know from experience).  It still disappeared pretty quick around here.

Spinach and Shrimp Pasta - Oh my goodness - You need to go make this right now.  I would say that if you don't like your food to have a kick, you might want to scale back the paprika and red pepper flakes.  This will be added to the regular dinner rotation at our house.

Tortilla Pizza - my amazing husband made up this recipe. You take a tortilla, spread some pizza sauce on it.  Top with whatever blows your skirt up.  Pop it in the oven till it is warm and the cheese is melted.  A quick, delicious lunch to make for your wife when she has been hit by sickness.

Menu Plan :: Mid-November

Can you see how long this hill is!?! The bottom of it is way back by the river...wowzas, it was not all that steep, but llooonng

 
Here are some of the meals we have been enjoying/will enjoy in the near future:

• Banana, Blackberry, Spinach, Yogurt Smoothies (sounds gross, tastes awesome).
• French Toast Casserole
• Mexican Goodness (I used less meat and added black beans, onions, green pepper, and my own taco seasoing.)
• Chessy Casserole
• Egg Bake
• Mac, Cheese, and Hotdogs  (Mom, if you are reading this, it was NOT my idea to eat this meal)
• Chicken and Stir-fry Veggies (we may or may not get free chicken and free stir-fry veggies bi-weekly...so we eat it a lot)
• Chocolate-Chip Pancakes (what is better than getting back from a FREEZING run Sunday morning and being greeted with some hot pancakes?  Further proves that I have the best.husband.ever)
•  Homemade Pizza (which I still say "pee-ja" in my brain)
• Two-tone Fudge Brownies (only make these if 5 men are coming to your house for a game night, and make them about 5 minutes before people start arriving - otherwise the pan maybe empty.)
• Leftovers  (I seem to be really good at making enough food to feed 4 or 5 people, not just 2, so we eat a lot of leftovers...I am trying to get better about scaling back recipes.)
• Coffee, creamer, and stevia (It seems "that time" of the semester has hit.  Pray for the amazing hubs.)

And now for more pictures that I have taken recently, but not shared:

These are my running shoes that are DEAD but comfy so I am still wearing them at 550 miles.  And my new running capris...that we are calling a {very} "early" birthday present.  And it snowed {again}.  And I slipped on the snow/ice about 3 seconds after taking this...nice, Alissa, nice.

This is what you get to see after running the long, not-so-steep hill...gorgeous!  {I am secretly trying to convince everyone I know to move to CO, it.is.nearly.heaven}

It seems I only take picture when I run.  Weird. 

What are you eating and/or enjoying about your week? 

Not exactly a plan...

The littlest one that I nanny for wanted to draw with chalk recently.  I tried to teach her different geometric shapes.  If you look closely, you can see three purple spots towards the top.  I asked her what she was drawing.  Without missing a beat she replied, "Your coffee".  Haha - she cracks me up!  (For the record, I do not drink purple coffee.)

It is Tuesday night and I do not have an exact plan for the coming week...we did not make as many meals as I planned last week.  (I think I plan for 4 much better than just Ian and me).  So we are eating up whatever is in the fridge before I go grocery shopping.  Here are a few meals that come to mind:

• Stir fry veggies + Chicken + Brown Rice
• Egg Bake
• French Toast Casserole
• Meatloaf
• Pizza, Puppy Chow, and Spinach Cheesy Dip (Friday night is our turn to host Game Night for my amazing husband and his friends)
• Homemade Granola + Milk
• Tomato Soup + Grilled Cheese

The wee one and I are pretty much the dream team when it comes to chalk: I drew the flower, she drew the stem.